The Autosport Show, the motorsport world’s annual season opener returned to the NEC last weekend. Open for four days from Thursday to Sunday, the first two days are trade only with the final two days over the weekend open to everyone.

2008 has seen the show become even bigger with the addition of the sister Pistonheads show, an exhibition of everything to do with performance road cars with all sorts of cars on display including most of the currently available supercars. Many companies that supply performance or appearance enhancing modifications had stands and the show was perfect for anyone who expects a bit more from a car than just transport.

There are over 850 stands this year representing every aspect of motor sport with everything from model cars to the latest high tech race car components. Girlracer had a small stand over the public days of the show. The stand did a huge amount of business selling out of the new bags and pit jackets on the first day!

On of the highlights of the exhibition was a large Display of BTCC cars from past and present gathered to together to celebrate the BTCC’s 50th anniversary this year. Although the BTCC’s female racers were a notable omission including GR’s very own Fiona Leggate. Fiona is the most successful female driver in the BTCC’s entire history as well as being the only person ever to be both BTCC Grid girl and driver. (She was Anthony Reid’s MG Grid girl at Mondello Park in 2004, a car she went onto drive in 2007.)

Fiona along with some other Girl racers including Formula Ford ace Sarah Playfair and Tiffany Chittenden, took part in the racing4charity.com celebrity kart race on Friday afternoon. Using the Kart track which is open to the public over the weekend, a chaotic race raised over £40,000 for charity with everyone involved having huge fun. The race win was taken by a team from Formula Renault. The race is due to be shown on both the ITV Network and motors tv with dates still to be announced.

Other highlights were a tribute to Colin McRae, featuring all the significant cars of his career and a display of some of Lewis Hamilton’s cars and karts from earlier in his career. F1 racing had their usual display, this year taking the form of a pit lane with all the cars parked outside a painted mock up of their garages.

As is now traditional at Autosport a live action arena show took place. Races by all sorts of cars were held, including everything from world rally cars to hugely powerful dragsters. The arena also saw more girl racers taking staring roles. Anna Walewska’s British GT Viper was suspended from the ceiling and ace stock car driver Kelly-Jayne Wells took many race victories over the weekend in her stock Pickup.

Lots more stockcars from many classes were on display in the oval and grass track show which was in hall 18 over the two public days. This show within in a show had its own stage and even included dodgems.

The Main Autosport Stage as usual had interviews from many important people from the world of motorsport, including F1′s David Coulthard, Jenson Button and Mark Webber. From the BTCC there were interviews with Tom Chilton, Darren Turner and Tom Onslow Cole. Newly retired World rally star Marcus Gronholm gave an interview on Saturday saying how shocked he still felt about the sad death of Colin McRae. The much loved Scottish rally champion’s presence was felt all around the show. As well as the previously mentioned tribute display, there was also a tribute feature in the live action show and many racers displayed Scottish Saltires on their cars as a mark of respect.

The 2008 Autosport and Pistonheads show was one of the best yet, with fans able to see all aspects of motorsport and performance motoring. If the rest of the season is as good as the show, 2008 could be an amazing season for motorsport.
By: Marc Waller

[Source: GirlRacer.co.uk]